


Hamming Multiverse

by Ratmor



Series: Founder Effect [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC Extended Universe, Elder Scrolls, Lucifer (TV), Mass Effect - All Media Types, Seven Soldiers of Victory, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anti-Hero, Biotics (Mass Effect), Canon Non-Binary Character, Canon Relationships, Cat Grant Comes Back, Dimension Travel, Drama, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Gen, Magic and Science, Male-Female Friendship, Mentor/Protégé, Multi, Non-Canon Relationship, Slow Burn, Violence, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28831761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ratmor/pseuds/Ratmor
Summary: He was trying to save his world from the Reapers, AI that are stuck in the cycles of destruction, but got sidetracked by the Multiverse and the endless possibilities. That's how he ended up in the vicinity of Supergirl, falling from the orbit right along with the intricate escape pod. Now he had to deal with the suspicions of the DEO, the enormous amount of different alien species around he needed to be prepared for, and the complete lack of funding, that could actually result in his death. It didn't help that one of the most dangerous aliens he didn't want to ever cross, was a girl that saved him the first day they met.
Series: Founder Effect [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2147040
Kudos: 2





	1. N. Hamming Code

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Founder Effect: Hamming Multiverse](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/744855) by Ratmor. 



> This fanfiction is originally part of my series on xover between the Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect. I posted it here because I wanted to try to translate it. The start is the second season of CW Supergirl.  
> Crossovers with other DC fandoms are clarified for the reason that fanfiction will not be limited to Supergirl Adventures since Supergirl seems to be PG13 at best, and I am not. This is the weird shit and it's being translated from the other language (mostly for educational and fun purposes). If you see a mistake try not to freak out, it's me being Russian, not me being illiterate. The original work was a real nice parody on some cliches in the Mass Effect fandom we had at the time, and this crossover wouldn't be left out of the initial idea to play with cliches a bit. It's not crack parody or anything like that, but I do have fun with some of the cliches.
> 
> TELL ME if you want me to stop or to continue, it's crucial for the continuation of the translation. I'm not sure about its necessity here.
> 
> The End Notes are pics for better visualizing, so you probably want to check it out if you like what I do.

The craziest decisions come to mind, of course, when you are lucky enough to meet a relic of ancient times.

It was a huge living alien plant that grows through the entire planet. And when said relic tells you that you're a jerk who can't see past your own nose, there should be something to it.

Of course, its hint on my stupidity was somewhat veiled, but still — the Reapers, highly intelligent machines that reproduce their own kind, using entire civilizations as consumables, have existed for millions of years, as well as the Thorian itself. So, it’s supposedly wise as fuck, maybe. But it didn't win, did it?

The creepy slimy scion was useful only because in its lifetime it scanned almost as many types of alien life as Reapers destroyed to reproduce. To create something that the previous inhabitants of this Galaxy would not have known, in order to solve the problem hanging over our heads, like the Sword of Damocles... The problem was, basically, the extremely likely destruction of all sapient life that entered the age of space expansion. So, solving such a problem, in general, seemed a bit complicated.

I knew all that without the damn Thorian, but hope, as always, is the last thing to die.

I was almost desperate, and so my next question (after I asked it about everything it knew about the Reapers) to the ancient plant was a question that would’ve explained a lot to me personally, and not to all of humanity and other sapient species. I was egoistic like that.

What does it know about the multiverse?

That's how I came up with this crazy solution that would allow me, with a bit of luck, to acquire a vast amount of knowledge that is not related to the experience of this galaxy.

Admittedly, even on elephant-killing dosages of alcohol, I would not have thought of such an adventure, but at that moment everything seemed to come together.

A Thorian and its exact copies of living beings, from which it copies all genetic information, and its ability to not interfere with the cognitive activity of these copies - check.

The knowledge obtained from that same Thorian about the device, which is quite possible to build with the existing production capabilities of mine - check.

To control this device, high-level Artificial Intelligence - check.

The potion is ready, so to speak, yeah.

And, of course, I could've gotten nowhere without the almost unlimited resources of my Multi-Species Corporation — everything necessary was organized in a matter of days.

The scheme of the device was provided without any delay by this alien spore-bearing creature. And the quantum entanglement that connected all my copies thanks to those highly multifunctional spores, which this spore-bearing creature also provided, made it possible to get required information from every copy of me that went to other worlds.

I thought it was a great idea at the time. After all, one of the most flexible rules of the personal code, which I adhere to, is known to many fans of Star Wars, the saying — " do or do not, there’s no try".

Now I think I'm going to go crazy. Quietly, at least.

I've already died thrice.


	2. I. Supergirl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> meet n greet

**_Earth-38, The United States Of America, National City, 20:48_ **

Falling through the lower layers of the atmosphere is an extremely fun pastime, even if you are wearing a standard Hamming suit. The high-tech glasses - without them, any copy of Hamming is a blind mole - are pre-transformed into a helmet that can save me from suffocation for at least another eight minutes, if not more. The targeting system and the virtual intelligence that mimicked Deinmaar's voice, so as not to feel too lonely, noticed a certain trajectory in my fall. It coincided with some strange flying bulky thing, most similar to a bullet in its shape. It was still a long time to fall, and the capsule was noticeably ahead of my body due to the working engines and gravity. I wasn't the Iron Man, but my suit wasn't that bad either — the jet pack on my back gave me a chance to catch up with the capsule and deliberately hold it in front of me so that it would create some sort of air corridor for me.

The moment I saw exactly where I and the capsule were falling, I wanted to groan and swear, but I didn't have enough air, so I made do with my thoughts. 

The jetpack rattled and grunted tragically — after all it works as a fall deceleration or momentum booster, but not as a parachute from the fucking orbit. I was honestly very glad that the kinetic shield, though blinking red, did not turn off. It would be quite tragic. 

Although, if this bullet thing that I'm falling right after, lands right on the heads of the citizens of this modest little town with a bunch of skyscrapers, then most likely there will be more victims than just me. That's why I decided to activate the so-called flying squirrel mode — I called it so because of the external similarity of the suit in this form with the wingsuit, which helped to glide. 

Right after the activation I caught up with the thing and almost grabbed it, intending to reduce its mass with the help of Biotics. It should be noted, the weight of this thing was considerable, either it's the crashed shuttle or the intricate rescue capsule. The thing threw me backward, and I tumbled over my head, so forcefully that I started saying goodbye to life in my thoughts and almost lost all the oxygen in my lungs. My adrenalized brain cooked up a half-assed plan to reduce my weight, so as not to simply break my neck in the fall.

I hadn't even had time to wrap myself in the usual black-and-blue glow that all biotics have when using their powers when someone started saving me. I somehow can't call it any other way, when a certain flying caped person captured me by the collar of my armor, and then the capsule. Moments later, I was gently dropped on the ground, and the capsule, to put it mildly, soundly grated its bottom next to me. Judging by the girl — and it was the girl who had saved both me and the likely occupant of this capsule - and by the alien that appeared a second later just behind her — it was quite possible that the air is breathable here. I considered it and then converted the helmet back into a visor, accompanied by a purely symbolic click on the mask. It covered my mouth and nose before and then instantly hid under the parted chest armor plates of my suit.

I had no idea that I wanted to breathe so badly for the last few minutes!

“Y-y-y!” I choked out and croaked some random Russian obscene words while putting my elbows on the ground and shaking the thoughts of death out of my head.

The girl - she stopped over me to check if I’m alive, it seemed - shouted something about Krypton and ran for the capsule. Well, it's her business, so is it a friend of some kind or… Wait, Krypton? Like, the birthplace of that eye-lasers from comics of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first? I remember his name, Clark Kent, and the name of his favorite villain, Lex Luthor. That's it, no more clues — no events, no weaknesses, except for kryptonite.

None of any approximate information even. And why does the girl fly in a skirt, if this is not a comic book, where it was kind of necessary for producers to excite fans to epic feats in the form of purchases of random paraphernalia with sexy girls? Maybe it's more convenient to fight this way? Even so, you can still see the underwear if you really want to, or did I suddenly become a pervert and not notice it myself? Both is possible, really.

I also remember the town — Smallville, I think. But this doesn't look like Smallville!

"Who are you?" The alien asked me, while the girl, as I’d already noticed, with a great figure and blonde hair, was quietly wondering over the contents of what turned out to be an escape pod. “And what do you have to do with Krypton?”

“Haven’t heard of it, really,” I slowly got to my feet, on the one hand not wanting to provoke them, and on the other not wanting to throw up. "I'm on Earth, I hope? You know, your alien face is confusing…”

He immediately transformed into a more familiar human form — a dark-skinned man in his thirties or forties. This, I must admit, frightened me much more than his previous scary face — in my Galaxy there are no "strangers" who would disguise themselves as human beings, and it somehow calmed me even, but here I think I’m going to get paranoia worse than at home... 

The girl turned to me and frowned, putting her hands on her hips.

"He can't be from Krypton. He's an albino, we had no genetic diseases in hundreds of years.”

"Is that a problem?" I raised my eyebrows and looked at her from under my brows, clenching my jaw so as not to say anything more offensive.

"Oh, no, no!” 

It was as if she had removed that pretentious dusting of hers and was once again the nervous girl who had been opening her mouth in surprise over the unconscious body contained in that escape pod.

By the way, I gnashed my teeth barely audibly, but the girl clearly understood that I was dissatisfied, even though I kept myself in hand. That’s how I concluded that she heard this gnashing of teeth and interpreted it correctly. Super-hearing, right? Super ... The letter " S " on her suit was visible even in the dark.

Does Superman have a sister?

I didn't notice that I’ve been thinking out loud. I immediately paid the price for my irrepressible tongue by having both aliens look at me suspiciously, although I saw much less suspicion in the girl's eyes than on the face of this African-alien or whoever he is. I didn't think long before I did it again.

“I hope you're always like this, and not like that one,” I nodded at the suspicious dude. “It would be a little scary, to be honest.”

"No, I —" she broke off and looked at me more seriously. “Who are you?"

"My name is Leif Hamming," I said, clasping my hands behind my back and straightening my back, squinting at the girl. “And I happened to arrive here from another universe. And who are you?”

“So you want to get back?" the most obvious alien in the room asked. “Isn't that right?"

I grinned and pushed my visor up on my forehead because I really wanted to scratch the corners of my eyes. 

"I'm ... let's just say I'm traveling. And for the moment, I'd just like to know who the girl that saved me is.”

She answered slowly while pausing for a moment before the extremely simple introduction of herself and exchanging glances with the alien. Honestly, who else could a girl with a Superman sign right above her heart be?

"I —" the girl didn't seem to notice - I guessed, she was doing it on instincts that seemed to have been hammered into her subcortex - as she put her hands on her hips again and flexed her muscles a little, 

" I'm Supergirl!"


	3. II. Danvers

_**Earth-38, United States of America, National City, next morning** _

I would've definitely remained at the disposal of the local Service that responds to alien invasions if I had not reminded Supergirl - she came to check up on the fate of us, fallen from the sky - that I am actually a pure-bred human and not one of the little green men. And I could share the technologies a bit later, without any coercion from the local special services, because "humanity forward" and things like that. Except when I voiced it, I felt they started treating me with more pressure, as if compensating for the alien origin of these, if I may say so, superheroes-saviors-of the day.

After sleeping in their med bay - they didn't put me in a cage after all - I woke up feeling numb all over, because I slept in my armor. No matter how high-tech the armor is, it's a tool of protection, not a device for massage and relaxation. After all, I'm not a quarian - those species are fond of such a thing because their armor is their life, basically.

So, I almost immediately tried to stretch my limbs. I'd like to be ready to run if something goes wrong, and the cramps would complicate it. Until these people decide what to do with me, I couldn't completely relax. But I didn't want to attack them yet, because I did not want to start my stay in this world immediately with an obvious conflict between me and Government Agencies. So far, they didn't know about the full range of my powers and capabilities, but for some reason, they were taking questioning me very slow. I would've done the questioning right away if I'd been running this place.

Just as I was crawling out of the med bay, I came across both that alien man and Supergirl. I felt it's a little embarrassing, of course, but I literally clung to Supergirl and for the next five minutes refused to go anywhere with anyone, because I was afraid that I'd be taken apart. Yes, they let me sleep in peace, and I was grateful for that, but I also know that they can get instructions from above, and their kindness will end. I was afraid of being dissected at my homeworld because of my advancements, and here the situation is much more serious since they have a greater amount of alien civilizations than in my previous world.

Supergirl's eyes darted from the attractive woman with dark red hair to that two-faced alien. The woman looked as serious as a security service agent on a mission. The girl clearly had to decide for herself whether to knock me out of my clutching her cape or not. I was not quite deceived by their hospitality, and understood that the only thing holding them back was that I could start to resist and could be something like those Kryptonians. And my quite futuristic suit - its tactical and technical characteristics they knew nothing about, even if they scanned me with their primitive pokers. This suit would be banned from the Citadel if it could be scanned. And our scanners are surely much better than the local ones.

"By the way, where did you drag me in? I was very tired yesterday, and you, guys, didn't bug me much upon arrival," I decided to clarify, although I saw the signs all around. "I'm capable of reading English, of course, but more details, if you could!"

"Our service registers alien activity," the alien explained. "And fights against possible intrusions."

"And we, and I'm really sorry for the tactless question, are we not in space yet?" I asked, peering over Supergirl's shoulder again, where I was quite successfully hiding from that red-haired woman's murderous gaze. "We're losers here as well, aren't we?"

"Here?" the off-worlder highlighted my slip. "What do you mean?"

"In my world, we're forced into a humiliating treaty that limited our number of space war dreadnoughts and other high-class ships. Damn Turians, " I complained. "But that's beside the point. So It's all for nothing after all. I can't drag a Kryptonian back with me, obviously. But it would certainly be awesome..."

"Do you need something here — " the alien emphasized the word again. "And do you know how to get back?"

"I don't have to go back," I almost rolled my eyes, but I stopped myself in time and didn't show any obvious displeasure. "I need to help my galaxy in the fight against the alien machines that rebelled a long time ago."

"Do you need help?" the girl lit up, and it seemed like an internal light of sorts. "I'll be happy to…"

"That's impossible," I said, shaking my head. "I'm able to pass back my own knowledge, only. And with all due respect, I don't think you can beat thousands of Reapers. Those are huge machines, Artificial Intelligence, and they create their own kind, grinding it clean every hundred thousand years, give or take a couple of millennia. They destroy intelligent species that achieve a certain development in technology. Fun, is it? Besides, these things are good at brainwashing. Many good people have lost their lives because of this emotionless artificial scum."

"Reapers?" The alien frowned and clarified. "Are they a threat to us? Is that a warning? It's the first time I've heard…"

"No, I'm not here to warn you," I rolled my eyes again, but I didn't cross a certain line, beyond which my voice would be distinctively mocking. "I'm trying to find a way to help my people with this problem. And you would've already known about them if they existed, since you have the opportunity to communicate with representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations. The information I gather will go to my galaxy and be used there. My job is just to live in the other world as long as possible and learn as much as possible about what could save us."

"I get it. Allright." he murmured.

The alien waved his hand in my direction and quickly buzzed off, first telling me that he would go and shake his sources on these machines that want to destroy everyone. It would be reassuring if these sources gave me the exact date of death of the local Reapers, if there were any. Although most likely, they didn't exist.

Meh, how much does humanity need for collapse, really?

I looked appraisingly at this blonde Supergirl — this one to go crazy, and if no one there to stop her…

"Let's go take a look at the space-pod guy. I gather you didn't come here because of me, " I suggested to Supergirl, who probably didn't know how to get rid of me without harming me, I literally clung to her cape. "You're curious, too, aren't you?"

"Yes, but —" she looked timidly at the agent and then turned her gaze at me.

"Okay, he comes with us," the redhead sighed. "But if he does anything, you'll be the one dealing with him."

A strange weirdo walked past us, silently showing all his probable anxiety at seeing me with eye movements. He didn't look like the local contingent of professional-looking agents. Supergirl nodded at him, and I watched him disappear through the same doorway as that other alien.

Another one?

Or just consultant here?

Well, it doesn't matter, I was threatened to be dealt with here, I have to react somehow. Although in any case, I wasn't going to do anything incriminating. But if I knew the reaction of this agent named Danvers (I noticed her name on her pass at the door of that comatose guy) on my Omni-tool and its scanner, I would've held myself back with a demonstration of this thing that's pretty common for the late 22nd century. It was like a Pavlovian response, really, notice something new and curious - scan it.

She jerked and simultaneously unholstered her pistol.

"Danvers, if I wanted to kill you, I would have already killed you!" I called to her reason.

Then I turned the scanner back on and got the results in less than a minute. The DNA was definitely not human, so he's probably impenetrable with all sorts of needles and sharp or blunt objects. But he looked like a kid in his mid-twenties.

The agent's preparations to take his blood were unnecessary, but I wasn't going to tell her that, because she wouldn't believe it until she checked it herself.

"Take it easy, you're not the only one with instincts," I warned her after she put her gun down.

"What is this?" The agent said with palpable doubt in her voice, wondering at the golden light coming off my omni-tool.

"Something that gives a nice electric shock to an alien aggressor, " I said pointedly, "if one really wants to fight hand-to-hand."

"I think I need one," Danvers said, and grinned. "And I don't think we've been formally introduced. You have good eyesight, by the way. 

"All of my eyesight is my visor, I'm afraid. And I'm the internal crisis auditor, CEO of a Multi-Species Corporation, and the expert on all kinds of cyber warfare — " I put my hands on my hips and said it with almost as much aplomb as Supergirl did when she introduced herself. "As for introduction, my name is Leif Kenneth Hamming."

I saw the smile on the woman's lips, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Supergirl pout as she realized what I was hinting at. Somehow, her gaze even made me hunch my shoulders a bit, it was quite common for me to pretend to do so but now wasn't the case.

And then - with a pained sigh - I informed them both.

"You may call me Kenny. There is also the unbearably cool nickname Doubledocus, which should indicate that at the same time that I defended two doctoral dissertations in two different areas of science, I am also a diplodocus. Anyway, that's what the creator of the nickname and I decided on when she first called me that. Well, you know the joke, diplodocus had two brains, one in the head and the other under the tail."

"I'm Alex. Alexandra Danvers," the woman couldn't quite keep her smile in check. "A diplodocus and two doctorates? For some reason, that's what I first thought of when I looked at you. Right on the surface, you know."

"Actually, everyone usually thinks about if I dyed my hair or not," I said thoughtfully as if for a moment I took her words seriously or rather pretended to, but she clearly thought that I wasn't quite okay in the head based on her facial expression, which was exactly what I needed. "Oh, it was a joke!"

They relax when they think I'm a goof.

"Don't worry," the woman waved me off and looked at the comatose man a little more closely. "It's a scanner, isn't it?"

"Right on the surface, you know," I chuckled. "What do you think, is he from Krypton?" the next question I addressed directly to Supergirl. "Do you have any identification marks there to understand whether he is an enemy or not?"

"Well, I didn't see the sign of the El House."

"By the way — the blonde tensed and quickly glanced behind me, I would've hardly caught it, if I wasn't looking at her face and if I wasn't distinctively taller than the girl. "How do you know Superman, if in your world there is no Krypton and Kryptonians?"

"Clark Kent, or something?" I said it without any doubt about whether it's worth showing what I know because it'll make everything easier for the Supers if I start lying this big from the start. I scratched the back of my head and pushed my glasses up on my forehead. "What do you know about the multiverse theory?"

"Only that it's true," the blonde got slightly dumbfounded and quiet, and behind me appeared the answer to why she changed.

The boss-alien in person.

"And how can it be that you know Superman's name but don't know any Kryptonians?"

"This series of comics was so popular that even a person as far away from them as I was managed to learn something about the characters."

I won't be making a secret of the knowledge, especially since I was well aware - based on the galaxy of Mass Effect - how much reality could differ from a well-told story, but still limited by the scope of the authors.

"A comic book series?" Supergirl looked even more dumbfounded. "Do you know my name then?"

"To be honest, I'm not a big fan. It's just that Batman, Superman, The Flash, and Wonder Woman are kind of like the mascots of the whole series. Justice League, I think. I don't know anything about your universe or the future or anything like that. Oh, and I remember Lex Luthor and the Joker and Harley, yes, the villains. Oh, and Poison Ivy, but that's because she's a sexy redhead that Uma Thurman played, yeah…"

"Ahem," the alien interrupted my rant. "Mr. Hamming, I'd like to offer you a position on the DEO staff. Until there is an opportunity to go back, of course. We wouldn't want to let go of…"

"I have no desire to be regulated by you as much as you would try to. It's a government organization, isn't it? And who are you, exactly, to offer such a thing?"

I folded my arms and narrowed my eyes.

"I am the director of this organization," he replied with almost the same emotions and the same pose. "My name is J'onn J'onzz, and I am the green Martian."

"I have no evidence that you, specifically you, the alien, would consider the technologies of my galaxy useful to us, humans, and I have no desire to test it. Although I am ready to provide certain things for study, as I originally intended to. And, to be honest, mass effect technologies make the solar systems age faster. I would also like to find information about this. There are aliens here who have already gone out into space, right?" I emphasized it. "The green Martian?"

"I stand for humanity. And I'm the last of the green Martians."

I blushed a bit at his heavy gaze, and then he shook his head and turned his attention to the comatose kid.

"His invulnerability doesn't prove he's from Krypton. It proves that he is dangerous."

"But that would be cool," I looked at Supergirl and asked bluntly. "Where's Superman himself? Do you have a problem if he's not here?"

"No, no problems!" The blonde was surprised even, and Alex looked at me like I've just tortured a kitten. "He just doesn't work with the DEO and... he's older?"

"Why the question tone?" I murmured.

But I didn't press for the answer, so her awkward silence, punctuated by an equally awkward smile with perfect white teeth, was quickly ended by me.

"Oh, come on. So, what's your name, Super?

"I'm Kara," she didn't disappoint, because she did get a nod from her immediate superior first. "Kara Danvers."

"Wow, Alex, you're lucky!" I was almost unsurprised, after all, almost everything suggested that Alex was more likely gay than not, but I attributed my suspicions to the specifics of the work and the likely change of image outside of working hours. "I'd love to get a wife who could fly, too!"

"Wife?" Supergirl wondered, staring at me with wide eyes. She'd barely managed to close her mouth back from a very distinct state of surprise when I looked back at her.

"What's so surprising about that?" I frankly didn't understand their surprise at my suggestion and got really uncomfortable at the number of piercing glances that crossed on me. "Hey, what did I say wrong?"

"She's my adopted sister, Doubledock," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "How could you even think that?"

"Well, are you at least bisexual?" I almost begged. "My gaydar has developed almost perfectly ever since my ex-girlfriend once started dating another woman, even though that woman was one of the Asari. They even had a baby. Honestly, that's the first thing I took care of, to understand the patterns or the habits of the bisexual women so that I'd know what to expect if I'm with that woman. Like, my Miranda isn't quite able to start anything with a woman if it's not some huge exception, I think. And you're, like, really remind me of those patterns in many ways, so I thought…"

Think better — " Alex muttered, and turned to Kara. — Would you mind taking him home with you to watch the Venture launch? I thought you were going to follow the news, cus we expect problems. There will be too many famous and rich people on the shuttle. Everyone would be better off if this guy's not under my supervision and not in the DEO, with his futuristic wrist-based computer right in the middle of our facility. And you'll hear whatever he's up to, if you're around him. Especially if he tries to spill who he is."

"You want to kill me already, don't you?" I tried to make my tone as plaintive as I could. "And what kind of venture? And why can't I tell anyone I see fit? I'm quite a grown boy, Alex Danvers..."

"Alex, I wanted to hang out with Jimmy," the girl almost whined. The Martian buzzed off again, to do his commanding thing. He snatched, however, a tube of my blood that Alex took almost instantly after I gave them permission.

"No aliens attacking Earth, and we're both free.… I need to message him so we could reschedule," Kara sighed.

"It's a suborbital commercial transport ship," Danvers explained to me.

She seemed to be the eldest of the two sisters, and yes, she ignored her sister's whining with a small smile and looked at her fondly. And yes, it was that look that made me initially think that they were wives, I confess. 

"Nothing special for you, probably, but it would be useful for you to evaluate our level. And you won't be able to tell a thing because you'll only get out of our clutches after you've received official documents and signed a stack like this, " she showed the size of the stack with her hands, and the size was impressive.

"I'll have to. I'm not in a position to engage in a confrontation with you that involves anything other than that... Words, persuasion, and trade, " I nodded and turned my attention to Kara. "Don't worry, I could watch this venture on TV at your house while signing those papers. I'm not going to run away, I'm too interested in you to run away," I ignored Alex's expressive look and continued. "And you could go out with your boyfriend. But I wouldn't mind if you flew me up to the roofs first. That would be quite an experience, I think," I smiled, looking into her eyes, blue and quite genuinely glowing with amusement equal to mine, although a little confused. "A flying wifey is something, even if you're not, am I right?" I stupidly joked.

Alex Danvers rolled her eyes and left Supergirl alone with me, apparently going someplace where that disheveled out-of-place kid and the green Martian buzzed off.

The youngest Danvers phone buzzed, and I suddenly realized how much I missed the familiar sound of the phone vibration from the twenty-first century. The girl looked at me, waved her hand at me as if calling the dog, and looked through the messages, frowning at something.

"My... my boss wants to see me," she told me, and was about to leave me here, I realized, so that I wouldn't get in her way.

"Oh, no, Supergirl, you won't get rid of me that easily," I shook my head and smiled back at her furrowed brows. "Take me to your place, where I could drop my armor and dress up in... whatever's more appropriate. Who's the boss, by the way? I thought your boss was that green one."

"Kat Grant," the girl said, as if that explained everything, but then corrected herself when she realized her mistake. "The head of CatCo, a major news company. Supergirl is something of a hobby, so call me Kara when we're alone or when I'm out of uniform."

"I see," I nodded, ignoring the fact that she was calling this cosplay the uniform, and smiled. "It would be nice if your part-time job didn't have such draconian secrecy measures. For example, how about a story about how in another reality, a slightly crazy multi-billionaire decided to jump into... let's call it a wormhole, in order to get to another world and find out what's there? Awesome article, isn't it, Danvers?"

"It's not a part-time job, I don't get paid here, " she corrected me and asked. "Why are you telling me this?"

I couldn't understand why she asked me that and, apparently, my conclusions led me somewhere wrong.

"Aren't you a reporter, then? Like Clark Kent?"

"I'm Kara Danvers, not Clark Kent," the blonde smiled again, that slightly wistful smile that showed a little more sadness than the girl herself would've liked. A sincerity that is rarely seen in people. "Not a reporter. Now let's take your nondisclosure agreements, too plural for me really, and fly off. You're putting yourself and the entire Department in too much danger if you open up to the public."

"I'm quite capable of defending myself," the answer was almost automatic, but I winced in realization. "There are more than several dozens of powerful aliens like you, aren't there?"

"Kryptonians have more advantages than most," Kara shrugged, then nodded. "And your story about evil aliens... I'm afraid many people may take this as an additional guide to action."

"The kind of people who would find my story about a million-year-old, but really fucking stupid AI who can't even go beyond the limits of its program..." I paused. "Comparing other aliens to them... Well, nothing could help those people. I think you're quite mistaken, Kara Danvers."


	4. III. Hamming

_**Earth-38, United States of America, National City, Kara Danvers ' rented studio apartment** _

I was signing all the agreements they gave me when the whole ecstatic Venture thing went down the drain and Supergirl had to leave to save the shuttle and its passengers. Her mood when she left her apartment through the nearest full-length window, actually a door, was the worst-this was clear not only from the fact that the date had failed but also from the lack of a smile in her eyes when she smiled white-toothed at me when saying goodbye.

I just shrugged at her departure, waved my almost empty coffee cup, and continued reading the papers, scanning them with my Omni-tool, so that I would have copies available if anything happened.

It's not my business to pry into the souls of people I've just met.

I was interested in something else entirely.

I was nobody and nothing in this world, and in a way it was wonderful. I could do what I like, and not be under the weight of responsibility for the Corporation. But here's the problem, I'll die if there aren't enough funds and resources to create a medicine that will reverse the degradation of my nervous system after extensive use of my biotic abilities and magic in general.

The body of an ordinary human, even one as improved as Hamming's, has never been and will never be adapted to perform magic on the same level as the bodies of Men, Mer, and Beast-species of Nirn, where I basically learned how to use it. Although the problem I faced was largely due to the presence of those very improvements in this body - a nervous system like the Asari, capable of contact with other nervous systems. It's not something that could end without problems in the first and only successful known case. If it weren't for this nervous system and the high level of element zero in my body, I probably wouldn't be able to use magic at all.

That is why I was forced to find a stable source of income in the first place, which does not require any excessive effort from me, such as working every day for ten hours a day for someone else's uncle or aunt, for example. I had learned long ago, before my almost century-long adventures in the fantasy world, that the money just had to _be there_.

Creating a passive income that I can afford at this stage and that does not violate too much of the agreements that I was required to sign. The task is actually not the easiest, because I do not yet fully understand the production capacity of this stage of local history. This Earth is far from creating the united government as walking on foot to Mars, although the presence of alien threats should've provoked efforts to unite this chaos into something stronger than the United Nations. In the past, all the major states with nuclear and space programs decided to take this step exactly after confirming the presence of not just some alien life, but an extinct extraterrestrial civilization, its ruins on Mars. We had enough of just a damn ruin and an obscure threat to create a universal government that was dedicated to protecting humanity and the Earth from extraterrestrial threats.

And I knew that the Asari had already made contact with humans at the time of our official contact, our first encounter with the Turians. Where else would my father have had the idea of the Asari nervous system, and I was familiar with one of the most diplomatic Asari of my age at the time of my fifth birthday. Of course, this was a sealed secret to the public, but the fact that the first unofficial contact with the aliens was made by a corporation that was engaged in the genetic improvement of humans, within the framework of professional ethics, was, of course, important for understanding the difference between the development of my previous world and this... Chaos. The Soviet Union broke differently here and existed differently, and Corporations were what they were in our twenty-first century-a force to be reckoned with because they could hire a small army or become the leading force in a small country.

Unknown to me, "Kazina", located on the site of the Irkutsk region, for example, was not the only inconsistency with the events of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries that took place in my version of history. Not just these centuries, I'm afraid, since there haven't been any scavenging Reapers here for at least a million years, and Earth, our diverse planet and a great place to live, could have been home to hundreds of different alien species for thousands of years.

And the fact that we are not slaves to any other forms of sapient life confirms the existence of other defenders of the Earth throughout the history of the planet.

My knowledge would continue to be rudimentary if I won't even try to establish the usual contact with the Earth's magic field. I'm capable of using it, I've already tried to ignite a healing spell that couldn't be sustained for long on the Zero Element energy alone, as I knew very well from those two years of almost constant meditation... This spell helped me survive an assassination attempt, which resulted in those two years of almost constant meditation, caused by a fractured spine and rehabilitation. It was as long as it was because I knew what Reapers were already at that point, and I banned the implementation of any possible cybernetic implants.

A little augmentation is a good thing, but not when any contact with your main enemy's equipment can infect those parts of you with much greater ease. Their indoctrinating nanobots still need to be somehow encountered and merged, not too fast if they want to preserve the cognitive functions of the victim, and very much dependent on the connection of these nanobots with the Reapers themselves - I managed to get a paper on the Dragon's Teeth. Those things created the shells stuffed with mutations and the replacement of the nervous system with a primitive control circuit, using the bodies of ordinary human organisms. But if there are bio-cybernetic implants, then the Reapers will have, let's say, an entry point.

I was not at all opposed to developing these technologies in the Corporation itself and its subsidiaries, as they gave not only a profit but also a very good reputation among both the military and civilians, as well as the opportunity to study ways to extract such implants without fear of accusations of unethical behavior.

My brain, of course, had its own ideas about ethics. And my main rule is that the experiment should be as safe as possible, calculated and weighted by virtual simulations. And if here I continue to create something of my own, using those patents for the use of which I paid a lot of money in the previous world, or those patents that simply belong to me as the copyright holder and creator, then I will have to build Artificial Intelligence. Virtual simulations conducted by something less technologically powerful will be more complex and much more time-consuming. My omni-tool, of course, contains everything possible, and I did not promise this Service not to do anything with my knowledge. I promised not to spread the nature of my knowledge. So what if it's the product of a couple of centuries of human development? There's no Element Zero here anyway, or they haven't found it yet. Half of my technology will have to be recalibrated. And most of my technology, if not all, can be integrated with modern technology, if, again, I create an AI and give it the task to help me with the integration. Otherwise, no matter how professionally savvy and experienced I am, I simply do not have enough time or energy.

I needed money, and my passive income couldn't yet be my patents, because selling them to other corporations didn't suit me for obvious reasons, one of which was the presence of my own "kids" among these patents, the second - the suspicion of so many patents coming from one person, and the third one - flowing out of the second - was that for a full-fledged job in the local business of state-of-the-art technology, I needed a reputation, and I could not get it even if I wanted to, if I acted secretly and sold patents not through my own identity, or for example, I would hand them over in exchange for a comfortable existence to this Department of Extra Operations, or whatever it's called.

Leif Hamming, let's be honest, has always been not only the holder of a huge amount of intellectual property, but also a marketing brand to some extent, and fortunately, these non-disclosure agreements could not claim my name. They're making me ID and other necessary things - they could've. But fortunately, they can't declassify my, to some extent, fake documents without declassifying themselves. And I can't get any payments from them yet - I did nothing yet, and I haven't agreed to work for them or with them yet, I don't know how the Director of this Department is going to try it, so I wait.

I had already thought of the position of the DEO in the legal spectrum, and they most definitely were not completely... let's just say, in the daylight. The last time I signed so many nondisclosure agreements, it was probably when I had to audit the Corporation's newest equipment, which was used at the Arcturus Academy for the training of Contingent N, the legendary special forces of the Alliance.

And, simply put, I will not be able to get any money from these DEO people without working for them extensively. Which I don't really want to do.

That's why I've decided to break the law.

Just a little bit.


	5. IV. Secret Identity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still dunno if anyone's interested.
> 
> That's how the mightiest hero on earth looks like ^_^ https://images.app.goo.gl/xTEG6HcKiP3FwmKD6

_**Earth-38, United States of America, National City, Supergirl's Apartment** _

Since there was nothing to do but wait, I turned up the music so loud that I wouldn't have been surprised if the neighbors showed up. The music was by no means classical, although I consume it with pleasure. I definitely can't cook with the classics in the background, maybe calibrate weapons and armor but not cook.

Anyways, I engaged in nothing more than making crepes, since I had no problems in finding all the ingredients in the fridge.

Despite the absence of the biotic implant, that enhances biotics to the level of Asari, my diet involves consuming a huge amount of food, just like any other biotic. My difference from the "augmented" biotics outside of my exo-suit - it replaces this very augmentation - is only in the distance at which I can use my biotic abilities in a truly destructive way. The nervous system conducts the same currents, also strains and exhausts the body, so I was not going to wait for Kara to return just to eat anything. I have no official means of communication with her, although of course, I could hack DEO myself, without any AI to help me. But do I really need to pull the bull's horns, I mean, provoke them?

Of course, it can't be denied that now I have much more options to defend myself even without the use of technologies of Mass Effect. Fortunately, I don't have to be so paranoid in this world that I'd be taken apart if I fail to protect my secrets, and being taken apart, most importantly, would fuck up all my work against the Reapers. But I certainly haven't stopped being at least a bit paranoid about it, so I'm certainly not going to give up on protecting my secrets by creating the impression that I'm very dependent on my suit.

Before I got hungry, I took a look at the story of Superman's appearance, how he was showered with both flowers and shit, both alternately and simultaneously. I also took a look at Supergirl's adventures since she decided to save that plane. Superman's rescue of the plane, by the way, seemed much more elaborate at the time, he was even in a suit with the letter S in the center of the chest. It seemed that way compared to her heroic fiasco - she saved them, but people didn't forget to pour shit on her for spilling oil products in the bay. And that blurry photo from the wing of the plane of a drenched girl in ordinary clothes did not speak of any preparation.

I'll have to ask what it was all about. It's interesting, isn't it?

There was also the strange story of the "fort" of Krypton prisoners, and the strange zombification of all the people in the radius of National City, the city in which I am now. Well, about that time, Supergirl went batshit crazy, if the video of Cat Grant, in which she asks to stay away from Supergirl, was not an attempt by this woman to somehow hurt Kara. Considering that Kara Danvers told me that her cover job was CatCo, it's likely that Supergirl wouldn't work for a person who's just trying to discredit her.

Again, I wonder what happened. I'll have to ask.

I was pouring the future crepe on the surface of the pan when the doorbell rang, and of course, I ignored it. Even if the neighbors came to make noise at my noise, it's not for me to deal with it. It wasn't my apartment, and Kara hadn't said anyone was coming, so no one important could be here. The date with that guy, Jimmy, I gathered, she was hoping to spend out of the apartment, because her responsibility for me literally fell on her from the sky, but since everything got canceled due to superhero affairs, I could only wait for her return to finally decide what to do.

When we were leaving the DEO, I asked Alex Danvers and their alien director, John, how much they wanted to keep me secret.

In my mind, I've already been calling this director John Jones, almost affectionately, Zhorik, because his face turned out to be too kind if he conducts a conversation in a more relaxed setting. Of course it's a short name for George in Russian, but he did look like Zhorik to me somehow. I didn't feel the tension the older Danvers sister exuded, he looked at me with both assessment and som sort of sympathy, and I appreciated the fact that apart from the initial confusion, he wasn't causing me any more problems, and I wasn't going to cause him any more inconvenience as well.

As a result of short negotiations, I received the high status of classified, which was actually equal to Supergirl's personal file. And the green Zhorik swore that they would not put everything that they might learn about me as a result of our possible cooperation without notifying me first. It was surprisingly democratic, but as a fairly obvious alien in his true form, he had to understand my complaints about the file about me available to every employee of this Department.

If they didn't agree, I would have hacked them right there, but first I would have turned stasis on the aliens. And scattering the agents would be a carefree walk through the kindergarten, they don't have kinetic shields, and I'm in ceramic armor, wielding two Omni-tools, with my visor and Virtual Intelligence in working condition. I really didn't want to fuck up these nice people just because they didn't understand the reason for my paranoia, but Zhorik was surprisingly accommodating - he just asked me to think about helping with technology in a completely respectful, neutral tone. I certainly didn't regret that everything never resulted in the immediate conflict, because I would've had to, instead of making pancakes, throw stasis on Supergirl as soon as she caught up with me, repeat to the point of absurdity and, well, stay on the run from her friends and comrades for the foreseeable future. The mass effect is capable of taking her out, I have almost no doubts about this because the fields of the mass effect affect everything, and the only countermeasure to stasis is not to get into it. Though the singularity would be quite different, this biotic technique would be, according to my calculations, very easy to overcome for Supergirl and someone with powers like hers.

I wouldn't want to kill her. Well, since everyone has souls, it would be theoretically interesting to try Joor Zah Frul on this particular soul and find out if it can resist the conceptual magic of Thu'um. Even if it didn't work out, again, stasis and escape to the nearest window to help. But what if I could've made her human - it would be really easy to pin her down, she doesn't have armor and couldn't have had as much experience in fighting as I have. So, when her usual advantages aren't working...

Well, in general, I was thinking about something like this, while the Director was mulling over my request. He didn't think long, I must say.

The older Danvers tried to argue, but John just gave her an expressive look, and my level of respect for him increased by about three times. Alex reminded me a little of the Asari commandos, the ones who can skin people with their minds and don't hesitate to remind me of it, if anything warrants it. If this woman had such abilities, I think, she would have used the same threats as they did.

In general, even if someone is out there who very much needs to be let in the door, and then for me to worship them, bringing pancakes as a tribute, so they won't get angry, I'm in the strange position of a man who tries not to fuck much with the laws when it's really easy to do so but not quite advised. I would like to have - at least here, in this world of superheroes and supervillains - the opportunity to separate my personal life from some of the adventures. As I understand it, the meaning of Kara's secret identity is the possibility of safe socialization and the presence of an outlet. I could only dream of this for a century if you mash all the time I lived like that together. And if now I have a chance to get something like this secret identity at least in some seedy form even for some time, I'd be insanely happy.

That's why I found it extremely stupid to open doors in someone else's apartment to strangers, especially when the hostess is not at home, and this hostess has her own secret identity, and I have no connections with this hostess, except through Supergirl. The doorbell stopped ringing after a couple of minutes of incessant noise.

Kara Danvers entered the apartment the same way she left, and of course, I wasn't surprised. I noticed her as she approached the balcony doors and waved her with my free hand. She genuinely smiled when she realized that I'd prepared a huge pile of delicious food and clearly intended to share it.

"If you meet me like this every time, you won't be happy yourself! What's the matter?" she said cheerfully, sniffing the air in anticipation, her face showing that she's holding back. "Are those crepes without filling? I need my syrups!"

"Why won't I be happy?" I echoed her cheerful tone, though I didn't understand her implications. "Cooking is my hobby. If you like to eat, and I'm kind of staying here with you, then please eat as much as you want, just leave me something. I understand that your allies would probably give me some other place to stay, maybe even tomorrow, but you're tired now, am I right?"

She nodded, but I could see signs of incomprehension and even deep embarrassment on her face.

"Well, I've been doing gods know what, listened to music and ate a protein bar from the fridge. The bitten one."

"It's awful!" Kara grimaced and approached the pancakes at a distance at which it's already necessary to prepare hit the grabbers with the closest rolling pin, but she didn't try to grab them yet. "Couldn't wait for your own pancakes?"

"Well, anyway," I ignored her and continued, " I eat a lot, just like any sentient being with biotic abilities. And it is important for me to maintain a balance in nutrition and training, for not to start to degrade physically."

"Wait a minute," Kara said, frowning. "What's biotics? You're not just... You can do something without that suit of yours? By the way, where did you get the hoodie, jeans, and sneakers? You didn't go out, did you? I don't want you to be detained without an ID. Everything would be valid only by tomorrow, and you'll be put in all the databases necessary, so that both your credit history and your education come out okay. It's not easy to do, especially with your requirement for secrecy. Alex is not happy."

"Her boss gave me the go-ahead," I shrugged, and a second later I did slap Supergirl's hand right next to the top pancake. "I'd be thrilled if you'd go and wash the limbs you used to save the suborbital shuttle from exploding. Such a kindergarten, by the gods..."

Supergirl seemed to get erased from reality, clearly somewhere in the direction of the bathroom, because the faucet opened there, and I blinked in surprise. Of course, it's impossible to surprise me on any planet I'm magically connected to, but it's one thing to know you're going to get hit, and it's another to have time to dodge.

It's a good thing there aren't too many Kryptonians, and I can feed one of them, not only literally. Judging by her hungry and almost admiring look, homemade food for this girl is kind of a luxury, born of the presence of superhero rescues - of trees from the cats and fires from the people, and that's when we're not even talking about all sorts of rescues of villains from the destruction of the world order and other chaos like that.

I sighed and pressed my palms to the schematic of breasts under the OPPAI label. A nursing mother is a nursing mother, even if I'm already three times an adult man.

I wasn't going to take the whole superhero thing seriously. I decided on it even before the creation of the crepe tower, so there was time to both think about it and use the micro-assembler on my Omni-tool to change out of my jumpsuit into something more appropriate for the time being. That's why I took the look of a "casual Onepunchman", although it's clear that laugh will be lost on other people but me. After all, the most important thing about Onepunchman - the whole thing was a funny trolling of superheroics.

I can't say that I have anything of that character but appetite and extensive training present in my life. The essence of Onepunchman not in the heroic enduring, it's in what he tells everyone that he's a hero for the fun of it. Although, if I remember right, he began his brutal training in order to escape from the life of a failed salaryman and to have the power to save people from monsters. I can't take every enemy with a single blow, unfortunately, otherwise, I wouldn't be here. The most powerful magic would be directly dependent on the availability of connection to the planet. Despite the obvious lack of anything in common, the whole situation with the superhero theme in this universe reminded me of that troll of a hero, who didn't care that no one knew him and that his heroism didn't bring him any money. When Kara told me that she wasn't getting paid at the DEO, I wondered for the first time what it reminded me of, but of course, I didn't care at the time to think it through.

These quiet hours in the small studio apartment of a local superheroine gave me time to reflect on something more philosophical than the lack of money or the pretty much real chance for me to die if I used my powers too much.

And to be honest, I still couldn't quite figure out what exactly was Kara's secret identity - Kara Danvers happily eating pancakes with syrup on both cheeks, dressed in loose homey clothes and not even noticing my thoughtfulness while satisfying her hunger. Or was it Supergirl, standing tall and clenching her jaw when she didn't know what to think of me - enemy or not?

I wasn't going to rush things and force her to open up about her motives for being a superhero. It didn't prevent me from starting my plan that began to take shape even when I didn't quite comprehend that I might need such a plan. I had different motives when I asked our green Zhorik for the secret identity, but the study of local history in general, and of the Supers in particular, naturally changed my perception and supplemented any initial plans for the future.

"I'd like to help you," I said, finally taking my hands off my hoodie.

She looked up at me, swallowed everything she'd been chewing, and put down the crepe, which she'd already wrapped in a triangle convenient for intensive scooping of syrup. I noticed this because I also like her way of eating crepes, but with condensed milk. Unfortunately, Supergirl didn't have condensed milk in her stash, so I had to endure syrups.

"What do you mean?" She spoke carefully as if choosing her words.

"If there's any disaster, any event where you might need an extra competent brain, knowledge, and hands at your side, I'll be happy to help," I said.

"You didn't want to work with the DEO," Kara said, frowning, and I felt the familiar, pleasant sensation of a trap being snapped shut. "Alex said something like that."

"I read about you on the Internet while you were gone," I shrugged and pulled a plate of pancakes toward me. "I don't want to engage in vigilantism, because I don't see the point in messing with a working system while they're doing their jobs."

She frowned, probably thinking that I was trying to criticize her, but that wasn't my goal, so I continued talking after I'd chewed the first pancake soaked in maple syrup.

"I'm really worried that I'll lose control and kill someone by accident," I said, looking into Kara Danvers ' eyes and making my face deliberately more serious. "I looked through the laws, and oddly enough, even if I kill someone who threatens other people, I can go to jail. And I don't have any money in this world, unless you want to force me break the law..."

"I was thinking about it, by the way, and I asked Miss Grant about the vacancies in IT. You said something about cyberwarfare when you introduced yourself, " Kara muttered in embarrassment, averting her eyes. "I didn't mean to suggest anything, but... To get you started?"

I stopped my jaw, stopped it with a terrible effort, because the crepe was so good, even in this syrup, and caught her gaze, for some reason frightened. I raised my eyebrows.

"I didn't think you'd be willing to help me right away," I murmured.

I chose my words carefully, so as not to show that I didn't quite like that she tried to decide something for me, because one thing is my inflamed ego, the existence of which, thank the gods, I am aware, and quite another thing - what really happened, when she simply thought about giving me additional opportunities to arrange my life in a new world. Of course, she turned to the source to which she has direct access. I had no idea that I wouldn't even have to do much to fulfill the first part of my plan. Just ask about it. 

"Don't tell me," I said, and hungrily chewed on the pancake again, " that I'm going to do an interview."

Kara squeezed her eyes shut, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and shook her head. "When I told her what you said there... Well, about how you're the expert on types of cyberwarfare, she decided that she wanted... to torment such an expert herself. Sorry."

I swallowed the crepe and it was all I could do to not kiss this girl on both cheeks, really. The syrup on my lips stopped me, honestly, it would be disgusting, although she might like it anyways with how she consumes it. And the fact that she thinks she's inconvenienced me with her care, it was heartwarming. This reaction of mine would be too much for this level of our relationship, wouldn't it?

"Kara," I said calmly, and smiled, " you don't know how nice it feels. I hope you liked the crepes?"

"Wha... Nice?" She blinked and scratched the bridge of her nose again, nervously. "You don't... Are you not offended?"

"What for?" I asked, and stared with pleasure at her attempts to formulate an answer.

"Well... I didn't ask? No... there's no other option, and anyway, even Alex said you wouldn't want to, sort of..."

"Did they suggest I was acting like a snob?" I grinned and narrowed my eyes. "I was silent, I didn't give answers on the record, I solved some of my problems by literally clinging to your cape. It warrants their contempt. But I'm grateful for the opportunity to start something new and not break the laws to get anything done the way I want it, Kara. If I don't like it at CatCo, I'm capable of making it to my first paycheck, I'm a big boy. I don't think I'm going to like it very much, I haven't been running errands for a very long time, but... Thank you? I'll need time to understand the ins and outs of this century, and work might help me to fit in better, to understand what people of the age I look like are thinking about..."

She nodded and continued to eat, not seeming to know what to say to that, but suddenly her eyes widened and her eyebrows lifted, and she looked back at my face.

"What do you mean, the age you look like?!" she demanded, and even raised herself a little in her chair, unconsciously hovering over me. "The truth, please!"

"Humans live for about a hundred and fifty," I breathed out a barely audible chuckle at her dumbfounded expression. "But my genetic improvements would allow me to live for about half a millennium, if I don't change anything else in myself and could provide my body with the necessary medications... It's related to the biotics you already asked about. The cells of my body are saturated with dark matter emitter, the Zero Element, as we call it, and it allows me to use the mass effect fields by my own body, not only with a suit. If there's a chance of information leakage at the DEO, I have to ask you not to tell them. I'd rather have my suit hunted than my brain, that's the truth."

She nodded at my questioning look, and I continued.

"Using biotics with a nervous system strain higher than it is safe to do, causes my nervous system to degrade. It's incurable and permanent, and there's nothing you can do about it except take a med that I have exactly fifteen doses of with me. If I don't do anything for it, I'll be dead in a couple of years."

"And you want to help me.. in the field?" She asked as if she couldn't believe her ears. "You say you're terminally ill and every use is..."

"Not every single one, but only a very, very huge," I rolled my eyes. "I have monitoring installed in the suit, it's a medical exoskeleton, not kids' toys. Don't overdo it. And I want to help you only in disasters, where you just can't make it everywhere, and where my experience can be useful. In addition to killing, which is basically forbidden for the heroes, I could do a lot of other useful things. I'm not going to be a superhero, much less wear an honest to gods mask, I don't need to be known and thanked, I just want to help save people when I'm around. I'm competent enough not to screw up."

"Competent?" She snapped at the possible continuation of the information-pulling, and I could barely keep my smile from turning into a full-blown grin of satisfaction.

"And she tells me, she is not a reporter," I stuffed the four remaining pancakes into my mouth at once to save them from Kara, and of course I couldn't answer her clearly while chewing, so I just took off one of the Omni-tools and turned on the video.

For the next ten minutes, she watched the video of me helping save a small human colony from nuclear bombs planted by the Turian Specter that went crazy because of the Reaper.

"I could show you my two-snout assault on the Space-Pirates' asteroid Station, " I told her as soon as she looked up at me. "It ended well, and, let's just say, I made shaky friends with... The pirate queen, let's call her that, and made my point clear. Very competent, if I may say so myself. Would you like to see?"

"So you don't have most of the alien species there, because they're being exterminated... by those huge things?" She ignored my offer, frowning thoughtfully and fumbling with my Omni-tool, just to put it back on the table after it didn't work for her.

"Yes," I decided not to ask again about the video I shot on Omega, when my AI and I stormed Aria so that she would, basically, stopped ignoring and underestimating me, so we could partner up in the future. "Is there anything, in particular, you're interested in?"

"Yeah," she said, reaching for the Omni-tool once again. "Show me a map of your galaxy. I want to find my home planetary system."


	6. V. Hammy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I tried to make them in character, I hope it worked. I really need someone to read it through but well =(

_**Earth-38, United States of America, National City, the same people at the same place, plus Alex** _

Kara paced the space between the kitchen table and the sofa, and I watched her with curiosity.

All I did was give her my glove with sensors, but she intuitively understood how to use the map shown to her, quickly typed something in, calculated, and looked through. I had not yet had time to specify what exactly, as she cut off the Omni-tool with a gesture she had seen earlier from me and began this pacing back and forth.

"Kara?" I called her, and she turned abruptly with a strange, lost expression on her face, and I changed my mind about asking about anything serious. "Wash the dishes, will you?"

She nodded, without changing her expression, and took off the glove.

I sprawled on the couch and turned on the TV.

When she's ready, she'll tell.

Five minutes later, I realized that this TV is quite primitive and does not involve an Internet connection of necessary sort.

"I understand everything, but it's actually a monitor! How difficult is it to draw a parallel and connect it to the Internet?" I muttered under my breath and turned off the Zombie-box. "Kara! Let's order something more substantial. And if I'm going to stay here for more than two days, then we need to go get some proper food."

"Okay, Hammy," she sped off to her phone, leaving me gasping at her stupid nickname, and a few moments later I was listening to her order three large pizzas to her liking, which surprised me a little. "Your choice?"

The surprise was brief, so I added, " Vegetarian, medium. With the addition of hot pepper, no barbecue sauce, and pickles. Add all the cheeses they have."

She repeated my order and put the phone aside.

"I knew something would be wrong with you," she sighed and plopped down next to me on the couch. "Vegetarian, really?"

I looked at her cautiously - I didn't want to explain the whole story behind my rejection of meat that I hadn't scanned before cooking myself. My youth in Skyrim was traumatic in this regard, and even if I already didn't care whether I talked about it out loud or not before eating, I doubted that a normal person's appetite would hold up, even if that person wasn't quite human. I wasn't going to check - she's too happy when she's eating, and I don't want to spoil it.

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently.

"Well, at least, you don't eat vegetarian with pineapples." She gave me a weirdly irritated look and handed me the Omni-tool glove. "Strange technology. Can't be used without a glove?"

"You can't use it without sensors, it's safer in a combat situation." I smiled. "Either put it in your gloves, or put it in your fingers. I have them in my fingers, too, and this is the only implant I have, really. Surprising for a sapient being from the time I came here. We have victorious capitalism and augmentation. And what's wrong with pineapples?"

"Hammy! You're messing with me, I can hear it!"

"You hear it? Are you a walking lie detector or something? And yes, I was kidding about pineapples, but not about capitalism and augmentation," I put on the Omni-tool bracelet and turned my head to Kara so that I could meet her stare. "Tell me, what did you find there? You're really not happy about something, Kara, I'm not that blind."

"It doesn't make sense!" She threw her hands up and began to explain. "If everything in your map is correct, then there is a different type of star in the place of Rao! Something like the local Sun, I guess."

"Well, maybe our Milky Ways aren't the same after all. Although the Earth is still there, so it's probably strange But I'm not an astronomer, so who the hell knows, especially without an up-to-date local map of our cluster," I decided to ask anyway. "Why did you even want to know?"

"Interesting," Kara replied succinctly and met my gaze with her uncertain expression, so her brevity was replaced by a more detailed explanation, no less concise, but no less adding questions. "Well, that was an attempt to figure out if there was... a destroyed Krypton in your version of the galaxy."

"Well?" I asked the simplest of my questions, without trying to delve into exactly how Krypton was destroyed.

"If we assume that despite the different sun, it is the same system, then no, it is not destroyed," she shook her head and no less briefly explained another question that obviously appeared to me, but unspoken. "The planet lost inner stability because of our consumer attitude to it, exploded."

"I feel like you don't want to talk about it," I said slowly and got up from the couch. "And maybe you shouldn't call me Hammy. It's a little bit... it sounds strange in English."

She reacted with a confused and uncomprehending expression, but it took her a few moments to understand.

"I didn't mean anything by it! Are you offended?" She got up from the couch, too, even moving it a little as she did so. "Did you do it on purpose?"

She asked this question when she realized that I had no intention of holding back my laughter as I watched her reaction.

"Of course on purpose! I really don't like that nickname. Call me something else!"

"I had a friend, Kenny, who died," she explained in a low voice, but it was perfectly audible since neither the TV was working, nor did she lower her voice to a whisper. "I can't even call you Kenny in my head."

"Leif" I nodded, taking note of her sensitivity in such matters. "Just call me Leif, then."  
"Oh, by the way," she said, jumping to a new topic. "I've talked to Alex about you helping me, and she doesn't mind really, but only if you write her reports when the situation calls for it."

"If she makes me an independent consultant, then I will be," I didn't pursue the subject further, on the one hand, because I remembered that there was something I hadn't told Kara, even though it might be important to her, and on the other hand, because I didn't want to get further annoyed about the DEO's interference in my future life in this world. "By the way, someone tried to ring the doorbell after you left. I didn't open it."

"Leif! You could've mentioned it earlier!" she sat back down on the couch, pulled her phone to her, and began, apparently, to scroll through the missed messages and calls to figure out who could it be.

I didn't want to just stand there, so I landed next to her again, this time closer than before. It was an accident, but thanks to this accident, I urgently needed to get away, because she had improved senses, and her pleasant presence made me stir up a bit. And I'm not even talking about anything related to sex, no, it wasn't the main thing.

It was weird.

I hadn't reacted much to good presences from any sentient species for a long time, because my nervous system, which is similar in structure to the Azari one, was quite sensitive to everything around me when Hamming, not even me yet, was a little kid. Which actually increased my tolerance for this kind of thing.

In comparison, Liara, when I first approached her within the range of my body's perception, felt bright and at the same time as if it was smoky, there were still unformed shadows of courage, justified paranoia, and curiosity. Justified - because the Asari also had this version of empathy, although it was not particularly advertised, unlike their "embrace of eternity", combining nervous systems for various purposes, from viewing memory to conceiving offspring.

My feelings when I was close to people for it to work, have always been just associations, which my brain conducted without my conscious participation to interpret the information received. It was not always absolute, or rather it was not at all, but conclusions were made not by the facts and actions of a person, but by their worldview, which was the basis of their personality, and not a distortion of this personality. If this feature was different, I don't know how the Asari would've bred at all before going into space.

Miranda felt painfully tired, yet full of dark energy, not lacking in determination and firmness, and I loved her in a weird way, largely for what she gave me when we were together. Not just the body, but the thoughts. I knew that she hadn't told her boss about my out-of-the-box abilities at first, and I knew that she was doing it because she liked me more than just the target, and she didn't want to lose me. I was her selfish desire, just like her little sister, and she was mine, just as selfish and much less meaningful.

My primitive perception has always quickly mixed with the way I see these people in reality, even maybe with the way I would like to see them. The perception of strangers has always been at the level of alarm/no alarm, nothing more.

Kara Danvers, on the other hand, launched a strange maelstrom of associations, the sun burning on your face when you stand on top of the Golden Tower of the Imperial City, alone, without worries, far from the completely stupid chancellors and almost stupid children, at that time two. There have been many such moments in my life when I just stopped and enjoyed what I usually missed. Of course, Kara Danvers wasn't based on the smells of the Imperial City, half-forgotten and dead to me for decades, of course not. She was just warm and fresh and pleasant when she was around, to put it simply.

It was a strange sensation, as if the tension that had been coiled up inside me was letting go, and the compressed spring became a simple thread, not even steel. I didn't know why a dangerous alien didn't make me instinctively uneasy, but I wasn't going to complain. After all, it was nice.

And I should have answered her already, because I seemed kind of stuck, I guess.

"Well, I told you at least something, it's already an achievement," I should have burst from such an irritated look from her, but I frankly did not care what she wanted to express by it, but this expression on her face was more cute than frightening. "I'm not a doorman, Kara, and I'm classified. Neither your friends, nor your family, they can't know about me, mind you. It wouldn't be nice if your boyfriend or your friends came in here and met me, without any story to tell them. I'm not that scary, especially if I'm not talking about my past, but it would be unpleasant to burn the cover on the first day. Please, try to take it into account in the future."

"Okay," Kara agreed, sighing wearily and rubbing the area between her eyebrows. "And about helping me... Alex doesn't understand why you're doing this, but I'm a pretty good judge of character. And you don't seem too bad to me..."

I froze and turned my head toward the alien. Either I don't understand something, or she's trying to tell me that I'm a good person.

"I just wouldn't be able to ignore some nut with destructive tendencies," I interrupted Kara, forcing her to look me in the eye, with the same frown, and she definitely doesn't like being interrupted, so I'll try to do it less, at least with her. "If I were an ordinary person, I would run and hide, there is no war between Us and Them, I have no duty to this country, and I am no hero at all. But I have the resources and the power to help, so I'll get into trouble, because there will be people around, and they will be more defenseless than I am. And, well, all the enemies need is to hack this department of yours, so I'll get fucked, that's why I'm being stubborn about working with them. And that's if there are no moles and leaks, which is simply impossible. That's a security measure of sorts, so they are there, hundred percent. That's why I need your help, Kara. But to ask for it without offering something in return is off-putting to me. So I'm not a good person, don't create any illusions."

I started to get up from the couch, not wanting to talk anymore, and was about to start making more extensive preparations for tomorrow's interview with Cat Grant, because it was not just an interview for me, but a real opportunity to put my plan into action about five times faster, but Kara stopped me.

"Do you think I wouldn't help you just like that?" she quickly reached out and gripped my forearm until it unpleasantly hurt a little. "Do you think your help in return is important to me?"

"It's important to me, Supergirl. Let go. Of the hand."

She blushed with obvious shame at her lack of restraint and began to adjust her glasses.

"You wear glasses without diopters," I pointed out," I don't understand how people don't notice."

"I slouch when I'm Kara Danvers, that's why my height and figure seem different," she began to explain, with a surprising passion in her voice for such a topic. "And when I'm Supergirl, I change my voice. Well, the hair also plays a role, as do the glasses. And about what you said, I'm afraid, you'll have to wear a mask, even if you don't want to. Better even a helmet."

"I could shave my head for that matter," I said, rolling my eyes. "The secret identity has its advantages, but how easy it is to solve problems if half of your enemies do not get to you, because they consider it dangerous. But come to think of it, " I looked at Kara. "If I were.. Let's say, a villain like Lex Luthor, and I knew your secret, then I would, Kara, make my plans based on the fact that I don't want you to get involved in them."

"You couldn't be the Lex Luthor-type villain, Leif!" she almost openly started laughing at my hurt expression. "You're offended by this, I just can't! You're not psychotic and xenophobic enough, Leif. You don't take offense at that!"

"You just," I said evenly, keeping the same expression on my face that made her laugh so hard, "doubted my abilities." I won't let it go!"

We looked at each other in the moment of silence caused by my statement, and then we started laughing again.

Kara Danvers was the sunshine. It was undeniable. I was almost not afraid of getting burned, I was more afraid that she would get burned, and not so much by me - I did not intend to enter into any relationship with her closer than friendship.

She thought I was a good person.

There was something frankly wrong with her assessment of other people.

The doorbell rang.

It was too early for pizza, so I wiggled my eyebrows at Cara, and she nodded and lowered her glasses to the tip of her nose.

"This is Alex. Maybe your documents are ready, and she couldn't wait, " Super Girl grimaced and then smiled. "I hope I don't have to say goodbye to you today. I can't stand the presence of vegetarian pizza in this house."

She sped toward the door, and I couldn't help but laugh again.

"You're laughing at her jokes, Hamming," the elder Danvers said, looking at me skeptically. "I only left you two together for a day, during which she was away most of the time. When did you manage?"

"He makes the best homemade crepes," Kara said with a shrug. And I kept snickering, but more quietly.

"Truly," I almost sobbed it out, "the way to this woman's heart is through her stomach!"

"Gosh, everything is that bad," Alex facepalmed with the experience of a professional, not blocking her view of the two provocateurs next to her, while Kara realized that I was joking and gave me a thumbs-up - it was probably not the first time she'd trolled her sister. "How the hell did you hit it off?!"

"The pizza..."

"Is coming!"

We said this in unison, before glancing at each other in order to cooperate. I liked these games, they brought back memories of my youth, all three of them.

"By the way, Kara, James called when he didn't catch you here," Alex said casually, and I frowned at the way Kara's smile faded, not completely faded, but remained and stopped being sincere. "He asked why you didn't contact him even after you received his calls."

"Why did he start calling you?" Kara muttered, puzzled, but she seemed to dismiss her questions to this James. "Okay, well, there were some missed calls from him, but I was with Clark, so I didn't notice. What was he doing here anyway, since we agreed that we wouldn't have a date tonight?"

"Maybe he thought that since you're done with the venture, you'd go back to the apartment," I suggested and turned to Alex. "I hope you haven't forgotten that you can't tell anyone about my identity. I can't do it myself, much less you!"

"How about the fact that you know the identity of Superman," she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Shouldn't we tell him, as well?"

"Kara, what do you think?" I decided to include the only person in the conversation who was well versed in secret identities. "Is your brother capable of keeping his mouth shut?"

"He's Superman," Alex tried to begin, though without much enthusiasm for some reason.

"I don't think he should know unless he needs to," Kara interrupted her sister. "Just promise not to troll him about it if you see him while he's here, that way he'll know for sure."

"Superman's here?" I raised my eyebrows and scratched my chin.

Kara looked at my face in anticipation, not very cheerful to be honest.

"What?" I didn't quite get it. "I'm just wondering what the reason for the visit is. Is something brewing? The explosion wasn't an accident, and he came here to investigate? And how am I supposed to troll him if he's here as Superman?"

Kara let out a odd chuckle, as if trying to contain it for some reason.

"It feels good, somehow," she said softly, and put her hand on my forearm, not in that hard gesture that reminded me that she was an alien, but rather in a friendly touch without any ulterior motive. Then she added cheerfully, as if coming to her senses. "When you're gonna troll him, and you would, but you don't know how, you ask me. I'm gonna share my wisdom!"

"Are you sure you spent just a couple of hours together?" Alex asked, and grinned right into my face. "Your documents are not ready yet, so you can't marry, if you wondered."

"Gods," I theatrically clutched my heart and began to trickle down the floor in an attempt to show my dying breath." She's trolling us back, Kara, save me, you're a hero!"

Kara didn't let go of my hand, so it was even more comical than I'd intended.

"How old are you?" Alex looked at me with seriousness, so I cut it off and corrected my posture.

"I can behave as I please, regardless of the age!" I protested, but I had already stopped being silly, and Kara let go of my forearm.

"I need it for the paperwork," she rolled her eyes, and we both knew she was lying. "And we need to send them your picture. That's one of the reasons I'm here."

"She won't be eating my pizza," I said, and Kara's indignation was almost genuine. "What? You've got three big ones! Won't you burst, child?"

Of course, she did not know the correct response to this catchphrase ("lemme try and step away"), which did not prevent her from answering any less funny.

"Oh, Hammy, you've seen so little in this life..."

Now the sisters were laughing, and I rolled my eyes at the ceiling, so as not to snap at them for nothing.

"About the investigation," Alex said, and my ears perked up, not expecting revelations, of course, but curiosity is not a vice. "He'll be doing it as a reporter. And if you've decided to accept Kara's offer, you'll probably see him in the office, although that's not a given."

I shrugged and nudged Kara, which made her laugh awkwardly - it was her nervous reaction to a lot of things, I realized. "What could he do that she can't? By the way, how's your sleeping beauty from the escape pod? And I'm pretty sure he's not Kryptonian, my scanner didn't think so."

"Yeah?" Alex turned serious in an instant. "Can I borrow it?"

"As long as I'm not the official consultant, your Director and your Department will be fine without. And my scanner goes where I go. I'm not sure that humanity should be given my technology when I can't control its dispersion."

"You're paranoid," she breathed out, and put her hands on her hips. "It could be important!"

"Well, make the papers faster, appoint me as an expert consultant, what do I have to do with it? And so that you don't call me paranoid for nothing, just analyze the biomaterial I gave you." I was a bit condescending, I admit.

"And what happens?!" Alex snapped, raising her voice, and Kara moved between us, but I couldn't tell if she was trying to mediate the conflict or protect her sister from my so-far unknown biotics. I'm not so stupid as to assume that she's forgotten about my unproven powers, those unavailable to ordinary people.

I sighed wearily and rubbed my fingers where my visor was missing. It was on automatic calibration along with the armor.

"Nothing, Alex. You'll just see where the paranoia comes from."

**Author's Note:**

> The short informational note
> 
> Hamming Lookalike https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/5a/b9/d55ab96b1dae22eaaa4027103ecd6c7e.jpg
> 
> The Armor https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Hazard_Armor
> 
> The Visor https://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Mnemonic_Visor


End file.
